Day 17
Afternoon
Noah’s Secret Lair
Noah was feeling decidedly pleased with himself. As opportunities arose over the past week to gain experience, he was able to gain a few levels. His high Intelligence attribute already benefited his XP gain, so he had achieved level 23. Levels equated to attribute points, which equated to more Intelligence, and in turn resulted in refinements to the efficiency of the tasks he handled.
With his lair finishing nearly 36 hours early, Noah redirected resources towards other goals. Having already pulled up his current list of projects, Noah reviewed them at his terminal.
Project Selene was still a high priority. Selene, the Ancient Greek word for moon. Part of him felt an obligation to bring this project to fruition. Though its priority was second only to the completion of his lair, he felt more emotionally invested in it.
He accepted that Project Akropolis would be his longest running project for the time being. It was time and resource heavy. No helping that in the short term, though he would work to increase efficiency as his Intelligence grew. Project Panoplia and Project Empeiria would be dependent on the results of simulations. Both were hypothetically possible, so success would depend on his own limitations long term.
As for Project SkyNOT, well, he snickered inwardly every time he thought of the name. A satirical joke about an old science fiction movie where an AI ushered in a robot apocalypse. He implemented both rules and advanced systems to prevent his creation from turning down that road. Not that he would allow himself to become complacent either. As it currently stood, SkyNOT was 70% complete for the initial compute node goals. His design, a refinement of current tech used in supercomputers, was both more power efficient, and less resource intensive to manufacture. With the power source he replicated from Logan’s Exalted SUV, powering the system was a minor task.
“Sky, display current projections for you to achieve sapience.”
Noah’s terminal changed to display a host of information, variables, projections, and outcomes, followed by the now much more human-sounding voice of his AI, “Accounting for the completion of all ten compute nodes, and excluding any potential for external factors, current projections are now 347 days to achieve sapience.”
“What are your greatest limitations in achieving sapience sooner?”
“Knowledge and experience. With just one instance accessing an external data source of either carbon or silicon origin for no longer than 2.3 minutes, I would reduce the time to sapience by up to 50%.”
“And projections on the potential corruption of your development causing a catastrophic failure of ethics and morality subroutines?”
The data updated on his terminal once again, “Based on data provided by you, initial corruption is estimated to grow by 11.85% per minute after interacting with a carbon or silicon data source.”
“Please report your current state of corruption, including projections, on my terminal.”
“Yes, Noah.”
The graph that displayed showed Sky’s current state of corruption at 1.08%. If the current trend continued, she would reach sapience before it hit critical and caused her to become a human-hating murder AI. The rules helped control for this possible outcome, and it was his hope that with sapience she would gain sufficient wisdom to understand why annihilating another intelligent species would be bad. The trick was keeping a fairly advanced artificial intelligence occupied for that long. Even without sapience, he got the impression that it…she as he preferred to think, got bored.
Day 17
Evening
Gumiho Dojang
The following week was a busy one for Erin. All of the adult students had no shortage of questions, and she was open and honest with them under the prerequisite that they not go advertising the information around town. She knew the parents of younger students would be hysterical about her dictating mandatory training, but she didn’t want to spread her and Zack’s concerns around more than she needed to. Every single adult student got in line once they knew the stakes. But they had the advantage of knowing her. Trusting her.
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
A lot of parents for the underrage students came to see her. She got everything from “What’s going on?” to “How dare you!?” She taught them all how to check her Status so they could see just how much power she truly had. Then she asked the same question, “If I’m worried about what the future holds, and my ability to protect my loved ones, what do you think will happen if you coddle your children?”
She caused a lot of tears with that display, and still some parents pulled their children from the Dojang and the Guild regardless. Stuck in a denial loop. Some parents gave the okay for their children to train under the promise that they were not intentionally put in harm’s way, a difficult lie to tell them, while others actually signed up to train alongside their kids. Those were the ones Erin respected the most.
With adding new members, existing members leveling, and the more senior students completing Quests, the Guild level was rising, which in turn allowed for new upgrades. Erin really wanted that Temporal Upgrade, Tier 2, but it only benefited her for now, so she had to focus on upgrades everyone could benefit from. The first was the Upgrade to Dimensional Space, Tier 2. Training space had started looking tight before that.
Erin didn’t let her training slip, either. She had to rely on her Silver Sleep Enhancing Implant received from the Phase 2 hidden quest and some enhanced foods her mother made, but Erin managed to fit in training and quests wherever she could. She nailed down over a dozen quests with students, helping them strengthen. The XP split between group members for those quests, which wasn’t ideal, but the Guild Points made up for it.
Erin took out smaller groups, so the GP averaged 500 per person. Across thirteen quests they brought in over 32,000 GP. She required groups without her to be larger, so the GP rewards were split further but still netted another 93,000. Her students were getting stronger, and perhaps more importantly, she was getting stronger.
Of course, she kept an eye on the soldiers the whole time as well. They regularly went out on missions to clear local threats or range further west to recon. The reports they brought back were not encouraging. Some towns they found were overrun by nightmarish monsters, others were taken over by gangs or newly formed militias, others still were simply gone. Wiped off the map. In the case of one town it wasn’t just gone, it was like it had never existed at all. Every sign of civilization missing, and years worth of fauna grown in its place. News of the world beyond their borders was spreading through Middletown, and everyone was feeling the morale hit. General Anderson started giving his soldiers more and more free time to spend with the people of Middletown, even training some civilian groups in the use of firearms and melee weapons, then organizing neighbourhood watch patrols. That’s probably why things went to hell the way they did. He took his eye off the real threat.
Day 18
Dinner Time
McGibbons/Moon/Jackson Residence
Erin was enjoying a free night to spend with friends and family for the first time all week. She sat beside her mother at the dining room table, with Mrs. McGibbons, Noah, and his mother present. In all of the craziness, she barely had a chance to meet the woman, and she felt tonight was a good opportunity to make up for that.
Everyone was smiling, laughing, enjoying Eun-ha’s cooking. Erin joined Ms. Jackson in trying to convince Noah to give Taekwondo another try, if for no other reason than to help unlock a body type and make him more resilient. Noah wasn’t saying no immediately, but he still seemed uncomfortable with the idea. It was the kind of moment you wished could be captured and re-lived over and over, just for the happy nostalgia.
It had been a while since Erin had felt the hair on her neck stand on end, warning of bad things coming, so it caught her off guard, freezing mid conversation with Noah and Ms. Jackson, to look at the front door. When the knocks came, her warning sense fired up even stronger than ever. The expressions from everyone varied, but most of those expressions changed to cold anger at the voice that carried from the other side.
“By order of the Federal Government, open this door or I will break it down.” That was definitely the sniveling voice of Hawthorne.
Mrs. McGibbons pushed her chair back and stood up, heading to the door. “I’m coming, you insufferable prick.” The last part was mumbled under her breath. No sooner had she opened the door than she was shoved up against the wall by one of the soldiers, Wilson it looked like, with one hand while he held his rifle facing up in the other. Four more soldiers moved in to surround the dining room occupants, rifles likewise in hand.
“Erin, I want a word.” Lieutenant Hawthorne said with his now trademark sneer as he followed the soldiers in.
Erin was on her feet now, but hadn’t moved from the dinner table, “Fuck off! There’s two words, now leave and let us eat our dinner.”
The four soldiers in the dining room pulled their charging handles, which was dumb in Erin’s mind as every single one of them ejected a perfectly good round, but the clinking of the four bullets on the hardwood floor startled her mother and Ms. Jackson, who whimpered a bit.
Staring Erin down, Hawthorne used his most arrogant tone yet, self-assuredness oozing from him, “Right now you’re running the calculus on how many of us you can kill, am I right?”
“It’s pretty simple math. My foot, your ass. I’ll kick that stick you have stuck up there straight up through that sniveling face of yours.” Erin was gritting her teeth at this point, despite the attempt at bravado and levity.
“I’m fairly certain you’re not that fast, but please, have a go. I’m curious to see just what order you save them in. It will be telling who is most important to you. I’m betting Ms. Jackson is the odd one out, personally.” The soldiers all chuckled.
“You already know that if you hurt them I’ll turn you into a thousand little pieces before your soldiers can turn their guns my way.”
“Maybe, but you’re not considering what ace I might have up my sleeve.”
Erin had to think on that one. She had seen him in fights periodically. He didn’t stand out anymore than the other soldiers, but he was just the kind of guy to hide something he could use in a pinch. She had her Charm of the Equalizer, but there was no room to duplicate herself here.
“Ah, there it is. You’re starting to get it.” Hawthorne snapped his fingers, “Men, take them outside while I talk with the girl.” He said Men, but there were three women in his group of five soldiers. None of them said a thing though as they dragged Erin’s mother and friends out the front door.
“Now, sit.” Erin’s anger burned as she took a seat, Hawthorne taking the chair across from her. Testing the food on Mrs. McGibbons’ plate he said, “Delicious. Your mom is an incredible cook.”
“If I knew we were going to have guests, I would have asked her to poison a plate for you.”
“Tsk, tsk, Erin. We both know your mom is a kind-hearted soul. How a foul-mouthed brat like you came from her is one of life’s great mysteries.”
“As opposed to yours? Lilith is still the mother of monsters, right?”
“See, this is what I’m talking about. I came here to have a nice dinner, and a nice chat. Then you have to go and ruin it by insulting my mother.”
Erin gave him the deepest what the fuck face she could muster.
Hawthorne actually managed to look exasperated, “It’s an absolute miracle to me that people like you, I’m referring to backwards nobodies in podunk towns not your race, so don’t go all self-righteous on me, managed to luck out with the kind of power you’ve been given. It’s a travesty.” He wiped his mouth with a napkin, then sighed and dropped it on the plate, “I’ll make this simple. Our real mission out here is to recruit or kill. Either recruit powerful people we find, or make sure they can never be a danger to our leadership.”
“You mean the country.” Erin added.
Hawthorne waffled his head side-to-side, “Mmmm, same thing, really.” At this point Hawthorne reached through the shoulder of his combat vest and pulled out a pistol, then rested his hand on the table, muzzle pointed at Erin.
Erin laughed, “You brought a pistol to a Me fight?”
“Not just any pistol.” Hawthorne smiled arrogantly and it turned Erin’s stomach, “This is an Exalted weapon. The Self-Serving Sig Sauer P320-M18 of Selfishness. It’s a bit gauche, I admit, but the benefits are worth it.” He slipped his finger inside the trigger guard. “See, the Self-Serving modifier will double all stats of the gun if I use it in service of goals that benefit me. Like the nice little rewards we’ve been promised for this mission. Granted, the reward is better if I bring you in alive, but you sound quite unwilling to cooperate.”
“And the Selfish modifier?” Erin was pretty sure she could take a hit from this gun if the damage was doubled, yet her stomach was in knots for some reason.
“Oh, see, that’s the best part. If my life is in danger, which around you it most certainly is at this point, the stats are doubled again, meaning it’s 4x the base stats.”
Erin’s eyes widened at that, and she started to flare her Ki, but before she regained the wherewithal to act, Hawthorne pulled the trigger. It hit the center of her forehead, right above the line of her raised eyebrows, and a clean hole appeared. Erin’s head fell forward, releasing a thin trickle of blood to mix with her plate of food.
I've got plans for him, but I realized I hadn't really been developing his story arc at all. Sure, it's a secondary story arc, but I still want it to have relevance.
Luckily, at the time I'm typing this message, chapter 17 is still something like a week away from the scheduled release date.
